PWC Work/Storage Stand

A reader wrote in the other day looking for a stand for his PWC. He mentioned seeing a stand made from PVC pipe somewhere but couldn’t remember where or when. I checked the catalogs we have on hand, but didn’t come up with anything for him. I did ask him why he was interested in a stand for his PWC, though. He had two good reasons.

First, he wanted to be able to move them (he had two) off the trailer and store them inside his garage during the off-season.  Seems he had enough room for the PWCs, but not enough if they were still on the trailer. He also wanted to be able to work on them inside the garage if he had to, without having to climb all over the trailer to do it.

Sounded reasonable to me, so I did a more thorough Internet search that night. I found a couple of steel framed commercial units and lots of lifts, but nothing that seemed to match his wish list. I never did catch sight of the unit made from PVC, though. A PVC stand would worry me, as PVC isn’t great at carrying a sustained load like a 600 or 800-pound PWC.

He had mentioned that he wanted to make his own stand, preferably from common 2 x 4s if possible, so I decided to try my hand at coming up with a couple of possible deigns. Let me say right here: I don’t have a PWC and these designs haven’t been built or tested. Use them as suggestions and feel free to beef them up wherever you think appropriate.

You will want to think about the intended use of your stand before starting. Is it just going to be a storage stand or will you also use it as a work stand? Storage stands need only to be high enough to match the height of the trailer, to ease moving the PWC off the trailer and onto the stand. A work stand may need to be a little higher. You’ll also have to consider how to raise the back of the trailer to match the stand height.

Box Type Stand
The first design is a box built out of 3/4” plywood (Drawing #1). The corners should be reinforced with 2 x 2s or 2 x 4s. The plywood sides and bottom should be glued and screwed together. I would use the yellow carpenter’s glue, more than adequate since these stands aren’t meant to be stored outside.

You will need heavy-duty casters on each corner so the stand and PWC can be easily moved around. Get the largest diameter you can find to make the stand easier to move around. At least two of them should be equipped with brakes or locks to keep the unit from rolling when you don’t want it to. The casters should be through-bolted in place, not just screwed down with wood screws. You don’t want the screws pulling out and dumping your PWC on the concrete floor. When selecting the casters, take into account the total weight of the PWC and the stand, don’t under-buy here. Try Sears Hardware or the Northern Tool web site (http://www.northerntool.com/) for the casters.

The next critical items are the supports for the PWC. The drawing shows a center support and two side supports. I would make the center support from doubled 2 x 4s or a single 4 x 4. This center support will be bearing most of the weight of the PWC and need to be stout. I would use lag bolts to fasten it to the plywood box ends.

The side supports could be lengths of 2 x 6 stock, angled to meet the hull of the PWC. Depending on the shape of your hull, you may need to use wider stock, say 2 x 10. The ends of the side supports should be rounded over so it won’t scratch the PWC hull when moving it onto the stand.

Both the center sand side supports should be covered with trailer bunk padding or carpeting to protect the fiberglass. You can glue it in place or tack it. Wrap the padding around the edges and tack it in place on the sides so no fastener can touch the fiberglass bottom.

“H” Type Stand
The box type stand seemed to be kind of crude and would limit access to parts of the PWC hull. My second design (Drawing #2) is more like the metal tubing stands I found on the Internet. A center plywood piece locates two end pieces, looking like the letter “H” from above.

Both the center and the ends are made from 3/4” plywood. All critical joints are again reinforced with 2 x 2s or 2 x 4s. Like the first stand, they should be glued and screwed together. A sturdy 3/4” plywood gusset on each end keeps the end pieces aligned with the center and provides a mounting pad for the casters.

The center support for the PWC consists of 2 x 4s on either side of the 3/4” center plywood piece. The side supports are again made from 2 by stock of appropriate width, angled to meet the PWC hull. Carpet or trailer bunk padding supports protects the fiberglass hull.

Additional Features
A couple of other idea occurred to me after making the first two drawings. The first was an extension to hold a trailer winch. Even the smallest trailer winch would ease the job of moving the PWC from the trailer to the stand. The extension could be made from doubled 2 x 4s or a length of 4 x 4. Make the extension so that it can be removed after loading the PWC on the stand, as it would be a sure shin barker if left in place.

You might also want to cruise the aisles of your local trailer store. Instead of carpeting the supports, you might want to consider installing trailer rollers. There are a multitude of different sizes and styles to chose from. This would certainly ease the job of moving the PWC from the trailer to the stand and back. However, you would probably be wise to strap the PWC in place so it doesn’t slide off the stand when bumped or the stand moved.

Conclusion
Well, there you have it. Two proposed designs for PWC storage or work stands. I want to again mention that I haven’t actually built these, use them as suggestions only. I would feel a lot more secure with the wooden construction as opposed to the PVC pipe. The total cost should also be less than any of the commercial unit I was able to find on the Internet. Be sure and let me know if you end up building one and how well it works!

Capt’n Pauley

 

Comments

[Jeremy]

PVC works just great. It also makes a great beach stand you can take with you.